Director: Jack W. Judy

Dr. Jack Judy is the Director of the Nanoscience Institute for Medical and Engineering Technology (NIMET) at the University of Florida, holds the Intel Nanotechnology Chair, and is also a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. The mission of NIMET is to bridge engineering, scientific, and medical communities by revealing, enabling, focusing, and coordinating related research and educational activities. NIMET also provides world-class centralized research facilities, technical support, and equipment for the design, fabrication, and characterization of innovative micro/nanotechnologies, as well as a dedicated hands-on instructional laboratory for training students in the use of micro/nanoscale fabrication tools and techniques. Dr. Judy’s research involves the development of novel micro-electro-mechanical systems, such as microscale and nanoscale sensors, actuators, and systems, and their use in impactful engineering, scientific, biological, and medical, applications. A particular focus is in the field of neural-interface technology and systems, with applications in bi-directional prosthetic control, movement disorders, and the autonomic nervous system. Previously, Dr. Judy was a Program Manager in the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he created and managed the Reliable Neural-Interface Technology Program (RE-NET) to address the fundamental, and yet at the time largely overlooked, critical reliability problem of chronic neural-recording interfaces. Without successfully developing and translating to the clinic high-performance neural-recording interfaces that function for the life of the patient, many of the widely envisioned clinical applications for brain-machine interfaces will not be realized. Dr. Judy served at DARPA while on leave from his faculty position at the time in the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Departments at UCLA, where he also served as Director of the NeuroEngineering Program, the Nanoelectronics Research Facility, and the Instructional Microfabrication Laboratory. He has received the National Science Foundation Career Award and the Okawa Foundation Award.